GTCR sells $64 million in PrivateBancorp stock

GTCR LLC is pulling some more PrivateBancorp Inc. chips off the table.

GTCR, one of Chicago's largest private-equity firms, sold 2.25 million shares of the Chicago-based commercial bank's stock last week, reducing its stake to about 3.5 million shares, or 4.5 percent, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing April 25. At $28.38 per share, GTCR's sale grossed nearly $64 million.

It's GTCR's third substantial sale of PrivateBancorp stock in the past year as the private-equity firm appears to be methodically divesting its ownership of the bank, which dates to 2007, when GTCR led a $200 million recapitalization. That investment backed the hiring of former LaSalle Bank CEO Larry Richman as CEO of far smaller PrivateBancorp.

Mr. Richman, along with more than 100 other LaSalle veterans, pursued an ambitious growth campaign that tripled PrivateBancorp's size in two years. GTCR invested again in 2009 after PrivateBancorp's stock price dropped precipitously because of heavy loan losses.

The bank's stock since has recovered to roughly the same level it was in 2007. GTCR's basis in the stock is about $17.

Before it started selling shares, GTCR was PrivateBancorp's largest shareholder, with more than 12 percent of the bank's stock.